


Nothing But You

by TeyrianTimelord



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Emotionally damaged Q, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Molly is James' cousin, Molly's a good girlfriend, Q is a Holmes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 02:50:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5189327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeyrianTimelord/pseuds/TeyrianTimelord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Q is sent into the field and comes back damaged in more ways than one. Molly know how to pull through when a Holmes needs her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing But You

**Author's Note:**

> SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS, MOLLY/Q IS BACK!  
> I dropped this universe for a while, but then this little thing called Spectre happened. Yes, I am still swimming in a dumpster of my own 00Q trash, but I wanted a drabble where my pathologist and my quartermaster got to be together again. I realized after I finished it that this is basically just a rehash of "How Do You Learn to Forgive Yourself," but I spent so much time on this that I really don't give a shit anymore...  
> I also tried a new writing style, so hopefully it's not terrible. Decided to be experimental and step outside the box a little! 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy! Comments are always appreciated.

Q had only snuck out of his house once as a teenager. Mycroft was off to uni already, but he and Sherlock were still stuck at home, both grounded after the middle Holmes had roped him into taking their parents’ car out for a joyride. Q never meant to be rebellious, but he had finally been invited to a real party. It was the very first time someone had ignored the fact that he was related to the school freak and invited him to a social event regardless. Against Sherlock’s warning that he would most definitely get caught because returning so late at night would send his watchdog Irish setter into a fit, Q had decided to throw caution to the wind and go anyway. The damn thing didn’t even turn out to be fun. And sure enough, the moment he set foot back through the door at 2:00 am, Redbeard barked and howled and snarled as if his life depended on it. The whole house was awake in seconds and to this very day he could still remember the relief, anger, and disappointment in his mother’s eyes when she ran downstairs and grabbed him by the ear. The shame he felt had been immeasurable. Sherrinford had always been the “good” child out of his brothers; this wasn’t supposed to be him.

He and Bond had tried to sneak back into his flat as quietly and discreetly as possible, but just like when he was back in secondary school, it was the animals that gave him away. Toby, Kahn, and Cerf seemed to burst out of nowhere and immediately attack their legs, putting a few picks in 007’s pants and nearly tripping Q, which made his twisted knee ache. By the time they had regained their senses, Molly was out of the bedroom and flipping on every light switch in the room. Q never would have guessed that fifteen years later, he would see the same look his mother gave him, but on his girlfriend’s face. Before either of them could speak in their own defense, she reached out and slapped her cousin right across the face.

“You promised to keep him safe!” she practically yelled, leaving an accusing finger pointed at his chest.

Q opened his mouth to defend Bond, but she immediately pivoted on her heels silenced him with a sharp glare.

“I’d slap you too if you didn’t have stitches in your face! Did you know that Eve called me when your hotel in Oslo was bombed? Sherlock and I went three days without knowing if you two were alive before he figured it out. You could have called! You could have given me something! You could have- you could have-“

In almost an instant, all the anger melted and gave way to the softer side of Molly he was more familiar with. Her eyes glazed over and she gently trailed her thumb over the rough medical thread that held the skin under his eye together before finally closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around his chest, burying her face into his shoulder. Q hated feeling this way; being the disappointment all over again. It was hard enough to maintain a stable relationship while being a Quartermaster, but they always reassured each other that at least he wasn’t putting his life on the line for queen and country every day like James. Molly had been terrified when he told her M assigned him to a field mission with 004 and 007. She called her cousin and demanded that he take care of Q no matter what. He promised he would. Q promised to come back in one piece. They landed in Oslo and R hadn’t found out about the bomb in their hotel until it was too late. James pulled him out of the rubble just in time before the building collapsed completely. 004 had not been so lucky. He had been too lost to shock to even think about calling Molly. All that his mind would let him see was his agent’s face as the whole ceiling came crashing down on her, and that’s all he continued to see for the next three days while Bond got them patched up and back to London. He wasn’t made for fieldwork.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, weaving his bandaged fingers through her hair. “Everything is fine, I swear.”

It wasn’t even remotely true, but he hoped she wouldn’t have to know that.

***

Molly pretended to fall asleep hours ago. Q had a way of being incredibly obvious with his intentions even while staying silent, and tonight he was refusing to get any sleep while she was still awake, so she closed her eyes and regulated her breathing until she felt him finally drift off. When she was sure that he was into REM, she gingerly slipped out from under his protective embrace to sit on the edge of the bed. Sherlock warned her that when his little brother came back there would be something broken, and not just his bones.

Young Dr. Hooper had dated a lot of eclectic men in her life, the whole gamut from public school Oxford grads to pseudo-gay psychopaths, and now a MI-6 computer science and engineering genius. She should know by now that the men in her life would never be anything less than complicated. For Christ’s sake, her dad was a retired Green Beret and the closest thing she had to a brother took off to be a secret agent when she was barely a teenager! She never wanted to be attracted to “dangerous men,” but it happened, and after the whole fiasco with Sherlock, she actually thought the younger Holmes was the safest person she ever dated. Her heart cracked when he first told her he was going into the field, and it almost shattered when Moneypenny told her two of the people she loved most might be dead. She was furious at herself for slapping James and lashing out at Q before even telling them how relieved she was to see them again, that knowing they were safe was like finally being able to breathe again after three days under water. At least the first time she slapped Sherlock, he deserved it. She didn’t like what she was becoming.

He seemed to be sleeping soundly, that much was a good at least, but she carefully peeled back the sheets as if she was peeling back skin during an autopsy, and that’s where the good ended. James has assured her that they had both been cleared by medical at MI-6 upon their return, but even in the dark Q still looked like he had been to hell and back. She understood why he had been so subtle about undressing before getting into bed and Molly felt a surge of guilt pulse through her. He needed to be taken care of. He needed to stay in bed and complain about how much everything hurt while she made him soup and the cats rolled all over him. That’s what a normal couple would do if one of them was injured. But no, he was going into work tomorrow like everything was fine, and he refused to let her see the whole damage because he didn’t want to bring her into it. He deserved to feel his pain wholly, but she was the reason he was suffering in silence.

After taking inventory of every bruise, fracture, and laceration, Molly eased herself back into bed so that she was lying face to face with Q. He usually kept her wrapped tightly in his arms when they slept, as if trying to shield her from any demons that might have followed them home, but this time she cradled his thin frame against her own. She thought she had been gentle enough to not wake him, but she felt his arms wrap around her waist and his face turn into the angle of her neck. He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t speak. He just let her hold him.

“You don’t have to protect me,” she murmured, just barely enough to be more than a breath. “Please let me help you. Please don’t do this alone.”

He did not give her a verbal response, but that was fine. No words would have summed up what he had to say anyway. Everything she needed to know was in a faint whimper and the warm dampness of tears against the skin of her neck. Molly wrapped her embrace tighter. She would have given anything in the world to take all his pain from him and make it her own, but the most she could do now was help him carry it. So she didn’t ask questions or pry for any details. She just lightly stroked his hair as he cried into her shoulder and clung to her as if he might fade back to Oslo if he let go. She only wished she could do more. After what must have been at least an hour, Q finally peaked his head up, green eyes shimmering dully in the touch of moonlight that was managing to seep through a gap in the curtains.

“What do you need?” she asked softly, and realized the last time she had asked that of a Holmes she ended up helping a man fake his death.

“Nothing,” he whispered back. “Nothing but you.”

He leaned up and planted a soft kiss on her lips. Molly knew she would never be the perfect girl, not for a plain chap off the street, not for a consulting detective, and definitely not for one of the most innovative men in the worldwide intelligence agency. But she didn’t need to be perfect, because he wasn’t either. She did know that she could be the girl who was there when she was needed most by the man she loved.

They did not fall back asleep until dawn, and stayed in bed until noon.


End file.
